Not many people are aware that famed author Jack Kerouac was living in a tiny cottage in Orlando, FL with his mother when On the Road was first published to worldwide acclaim. After an article appeared in the Orlando Sentinel in 1997 detailing this fact, a pair of local bookstore owners decided to purchase the house and start a nonprofit. Today the Kerouac Project offers four residencies and a small stipend each year in the house where Dharma Bums was also put to paper.